When I arrived in Germany, I had a heart-to-heart with passport control at the airport. What if I needed to stay past ninety days? He told me, and our conversation ended with the friendly warning: “Take care of this, or it will be bad.”
Yesterday was my ninetieth day in Germany.
So I spent the day registering for a residency permit (Aufenthaltsgenehmigung or Aufenthaltserlaubnis) at the county offices (Kreisverwaltung). But first, since I live in Rodenbach, I went to Weilerbach to the municipal (Verbandsgemeinde) offices to register.
Joe has a way to get around: a government rental car. I have a way to get around: my feet. Fortunately, the walk to Weilerbach is a pretty one. It gave me a chance to capture the textures of autumn. Lots of berry bushes along the way: red, yellow, orange, purple…
In Weilerbach, I filled out the residency form with the help of the very nice office ladies there. Fortunately, my German is pretty good because on the phone or in person, no one spoke English to me. This is official stuff, and German is the official language. If I were filling out forms like these and didn’t know German, I would take a bilingual friend along.
I needed a passport photo for my residency permit. The key-making shop at the Weilerbach circle (by AWG) makes passport photos, but he was closed for lunch. So I went home and walked back later. Once more over the little bridge:
If you’re going to stay awhile, Germany wants to know you have your own income and insurance. So at the county office in Kaiserslautern, Frau Meyer scanned my passport and insurance card, Joe’s paperwork, his pay stub, the new passport photo, my Weilerbach registration form, and my fingers. They collected a fee. And now I’m a legal alien. My papers will be mailed from Berlin. Doesn’t that sound like a line from a Le Carré thriller? Starring me!
But I realized I had left my coat at the Weilerbach office. So, back through the woods…
It was a beautiful day for a walk.
To read my latest blog posts, please click on the “Green and Pleasant Land” logo at the top of this page. Photos taken in November, 2011, in Weilerbach and Rodenbach, Germany. Text and photos copyright 2011 by Clare B. Dunkle.
Great photos, Clare. My favorite is the one with the trees reflected in the water.
Thank you! This new camera is just stunning. You know I’m not that good on my own.